Philip Nelson Transfers To Rutgers, Two Others Leave, and Ian Thomas?

 -Former Minnesota Quarterback Philip Nelson has decided to transfer to Rutgers. The Big 10 has very strict inter-conference transfer rules, but those penalties do not apply to Nelson, since Rutgers has not yet officially joined the league. Nelson, who will have two years of eligibility remaining beginning in 2015, left Minnesota in order to join a team that puts more emphasis on the passing game.

Nelson was the number two prospect in Minnesota coming out of high school, and he started 16 games for the Gophers over the past two seasons. In his college career, he has completed 50% of his passes for 2179 yards (6.5 YPA) with 17 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He is also pretty adept as a runner, compiling 548 yards and 6 touchdowns on the ground. Nelson will probably be in the mix to start in 2015, but I think he would be best served as a back up. I'm not really sold on him as a passer, though he could improve.

-It has been quite an odd year for Rutgers' football program and the athletic department as a whole, but I'm pretty confident saying the weirdness of this has topped everything else. Corner back Ian Thomas, the redshirt freshman who started four games for Rutgers in 2013 before quitting the team to pursue a career in baseball, has re-joined the football program. Thomas not only quit the team in the middle of the season, but as you may recall, he pretty much called Kyle Flood a liar in the media, causing an even bigger media circus around the program.

It's pretty incomprehensible how weird this situation is, but if Flood and players are willing to accept him back, we as fans should as well. Flood said that Thomas will have to work his way back up from the bottom, and that's how it should be. If he can in fact work his way back, he would provide a tremendous boost to the young secondary that struggled last year and was lacking depth.

-Elsewhere, freshman defensive lineman Josh Klecko and Nick Internicola have decided to transfer. Both players were red shirted this year, and Klecko has decided to go to Fordham in pursuit of a better opportunity to play, while Internicola (a Florida native) wants to be closer to home.